HIGH blood pressure is one of the many heart problems that threaten adults in Mzansi.
But did you know that one in 10 children is being diagnosed with high blood pressure too?
This is caused by unhealthy high-salt foods children eat almost daily. This raises another question: are we forcing our kids to suffer this disease by what we give them to eat?
High blood pressure is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. In Mzansi, one out of three people over the age of 15 suffers from high blood pressure – and the number of people affected increases year by year.
Although we don’t know how much salt Mzansi’s children eat, it is already too high among adults. Because children follow the habits of their parents, this has led experts to assume that kids eat as much salt as their mums and dads.
Research has shown that one out of three teenagers eats fast foods two to three times a week, with high-salt fast food such as crisps, fried chips, kotas or pies being sold in school tuck shops and by street vendors.
Liking salt and salty foods is a learned taste preference, and so it is important that children do not develop a taste for salt in the first place.
